Pistol Packin' Preacher review

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Posate le pistole, reverendo (1965, Leopolda Savona)


For the avid spaghetti western fan it will not be a surprise when I say that in the seventies creators of the genre started to run out of ideas. Consequentially a load of comedy westerns were the logical plan b, after which the genre -in Italy- smoothly made place for cinematic experiments of other forms (crime, action, horror, etc.). Be that as it may, Leopoldo Savona's Posate le pistole, reverendo (international title: Pistol packin' preacher) is an excellent example of one of those comedy westerns. Actor Mark Damon portrays a bum who accompanies a pizza baker and his two daughters on their travel. When Damon finds out about a forthcoming eclipse he gets a luminous idea: The pizza baker (whose business is not going to well) gets to wear to the suit of a man of God. Conveniently the eclipse can serve as one of the many examples of the 'wonders' that the man is capable of; all to con the inhabitants of some town. Meanwhile the guy who runs the town keeps a hidden treasure somewhere. The odd quartet make plans to steal it... In order to make a comparison, They call me Trinity would be a serious documentary, when laid next to Pistol packin' preacher. Luckily I have a very bad taste, otherwise I'd be crying more than laughing. Especially the horribly staged fights, The A-Team would be a masterpiece in comparison, as well as the mongoloid sound effects that are used way too often will be experienced as sheer torture by people who have any taste whatsoever. The humour used is so lame and stupid that you will very soon abort laughter. It didn't really bother me that much. Of course it's bad, but you can't accuse the flick for lacking cheer. Noone gets shot for example, so you can easily show this film to your kids. However, make sure your kids are under the age of six, because otherwise they will find it too childish. Anyway, this spaghetti westerns works with one simple ingredient, from which the lame humour humour comes. And this is a tad too little in my opinion. Because of this the film tends to repeat itself over and over with its dumb pranks. Where the inferiority of the flick can be considered a plus, the repetetive nature of the film is not something positive. A pleasant surprise however was the discovery of Mark Damon's comedic talent. Prior to this he merely annoyed me in for example Johnny Yuma. As always Lallo Gori's music is good and easily the best thing about Pistol packin' preacher. --Bad Lieutenant 23:10, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

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